Now is the peak season for booking holiday travel for Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, and other winter holidays. In fact, many companies recommend securing your travel plans before October 31 to avoid competing for low inventory and price spikes.

With the increase in bookings, there are more opportunities for travel scams to occur. In fact, in 2025 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) received more than 64,000 reports of fraud related to travel, vacations and timeshare plans. Don’t let a scam ruin your holiday plans by leaving you stranded or with unwanted charges to your credit card. See below for what to watch out for.

• Fake Travel Ads
  • This scam gets you before you have even booked your vacation by targeting you with ads that appear to be from legitimate airlines, hotels or booking sites, but they are actually used to steal your data or money. These are paid ads, so they seem very real with actual contact numbers and booking links. Pro Tip: If you see an ad or email offering a free trip, it’s likely not real. The scammer will ask you to pay fees and taxes on the “free trip” and pocket the money.
• Vacation Rentals
  • Listings are stolen from real vacation home listings and reposted at a lower price. To take the scam further, once a victim engages with the listing, they are asked to pay online through a peer to peer or fake third-party site.
• Phishing Text or Emails
  • This scam is not to different from others targeting monetary gain, but they target travelers who have made plans or are currently traveling by texting or email about topics such as reservation cancelations, flight changes, or unpaid tolls. In many of these communications, immediate payment is demanded to rectify the issue.

How to Protect Yourself

• Always verify the URLs or phone numbers before providing any information. Even if you see an ad that entices you, handle booking through the official website.
• Only use credit cards to pay, as they have the best fraud protection. Wires or peer-to-peer transfers often cannot be reversed.
• Always pay within a trusted platform. Do not use a site you are not familiar with for a transaction.